My Roth IRA lost in value last year. A great deal of it happened in November. I’m sure it was rather rocky last week as well. But I didn’t check. Mainly because I’m not terribly worried about what this bear market is going to do to my retirement portfolio. If were retiring next year, I’d be terrified. I’d make a plan to keep working a little longer until the market recovers (which it almost always does in the long run). But I am decades from retirement, so the bear market isn’t a bad thing for me.
CNN Money points this out …read more

Today’s words of wisdom from Paul Farrell’s MarketWatch article on ten things that can help you beat the bear market are rather simple: save. Farrell recommends that you set aside 15% of your income in some sort of savings, whether it’s retirement accounts, stock investing or some other vehicle. But he also says that 10% should be the minimum:
Here are two key formulas to remember: One, if you’re not saving at least 10% then you are spending too much. Two: Nothing saved equals nothing invested equals nothing compounding equals nothing in your retirement nest egg.
You can’t beat the bear market, …read more

Everyone knows that the stock market is risky, and that you could lose money, no matter how “good” your information may be. However, things are getting a little bit dicey. MarketWatch’s Paul Farrell points this out about where our stock market is headed:
Now the biggest of all insults: Our capitalist system is so dysfunctional that lately the market has taken to cheering as Wall Street’s incompetent bankers hide their mistakes by selling huge chunks of America’s equity to China, Singapore, Abu Dhabi and other sovereign funds — with more sell-offs coming. …
Unfortunately, our leaders just don’t get it: America’s high-on-the-hog, …read more